Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Small Vintage

Quite often when shopping for vintage fashion, majority of the gorgeous frocks I find are miniscule. Teeny tiny Vivienne Leigh size waist. V Small.

‘A’ found this punch bowl still in its box about 8 months ago, somewhere. It’s been sitting on the back deck on a bench collecting dust so I decided it was time to wash it and bring it in. This is it

Dime a dozen, and probably shoved in the back of most of our parents cupboards, but a good little piece nonetheless and still in its box with its plastic hooks and ladle.
 
Of course my first thought was, ‘there’s one sip to be had out of this cup’.

So I did a direct comparison with a normal sized glass of today, and compared my Poppy mug with the daily coffee mug I actually drink out of
Ridiculous right?

 
And then i felt a plate comparison was required
 
I realise that this isn’t news to anyone. We all know that the size of these things has increased and nowadays, when a woman seeks to lose weight, she has her meal off a side plate instead to assist in portion control.

What I’d love to know is why we even needed to make things bigger? Because it's 'trendy'? Other than making our entree of scallops look incredibly small and glasses of wine pitiful, it enables us to eat more than we need without even realising.

40 years ago women (and men) drank out of little glasses, ate off small plates and scooped out of shallow bowls. Women didn’t go out and hit the pavement, box, do yoga or run on a treadmill to slip into a frock. They just ate and drank smaller quantities. Actually, aerobics was big in the 80's. Is that when our plates got bigger??



Anyway, my punch bowl cups are very small and this is the punch recipe book that came with them


 

There’s a June punch. My month of birth, so I might have a little morning tea in June with small portions of caramel slice and scones. I'll be in the market for teeny vintage frocks in no time.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Yellow Cane Lounge - Recovered!

Before Christmas you may recall, or not, I did a post toying with ideas for recovering the cushioning on my yellow cane lounge, this was the post here

It's done. And it's totally the opposite to what i originally envisioned. All the fabrics are linen. I'm crossing myself that they won't fade. A tea towel linen cushion i had out there hasn't budged all through summer. Here's to hoping.

We have these tinted blinds on the front balcony due to extreme weathering coming through. I've grown to like them a lot, because they're dark, but i can still see out, it makes the area feel nice and cosy, and the darker fabric makes it less obvious or something.

You can see the slight mustard yellow in the base fabric. The cushions are reversible, the other side is a neutral linen so i can bring them in or use them out the back if i want a change.
Mr B lounging on my leg yesterday arv. He shan't be making it a habit of jumping up there, but who can resist a face like that?

Friday, February 10, 2012

Lights for reno Part II

This is very typical of me, meaning: I purchase things prior to needing them, just in case.

Insert this pendant shade below. May not work in this house at all, but good to have ... 'just in case'

It folds to a flat piece, the light sits in the middle so it would throw a moody glow i think.
I like very much that it's copper.

These sconces however, I will use downstairs. There's 3 of them.
I intend on using 2 of them in the bathroom but they'll need some adjusting. 
They're in great condition and will be tweaked once I have my final bathroom visual planted in my brain. At this stage, the wood will be sanded back and stained a darker colour with the gold remaining OR, the wood will be sanded back, sealed (think naturally its a bit lighter and less red) and the gold sprayed black. Either/Or.

The third one. Well, not sure if it'll get a run. We'll see. I don't want to over sconce it.

I also have this light in the bathroom upstairs as you can see above. I'd prefer that the rooms work together rather than have them looking totally different, the style of the sconces and the green lantern above is a start at the rooms complimenting one another. Still a way to go ... but finally finishing this house is beginning to look like it will happen.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Bushells 'Tea of Flavor' ...

What magical weather we had here in Brisbane on the weekend. Let's pray it keeps up and spreads its gloriousness to our friends in St George and other regions who are experiencing weather gone bad.

I achieved a few things on the weekend and one of them was finalising some dimensions for the study downstairs. I've opted for a skinny room for sole 'office' purposes, in order to have a larger bedroom rather than having having a small bedroom and a small bedroom/office.

So while stepping out measurements for downstairs I was using these teaboxes as the study desk, well, where the desk will be. They looked so lovely lined up I thought i'd take a pic.
I've had them for about 5 months now but they just get moved around and used as imaginery walls, desks, baths etc on a slab of concrete.  I like them together so I think down the track, somewhere, i'll put nice big leafed pots in each of them. Use them as a screen or space divider. The Bushells my fave. The shade of blue's v pretty.



The inside still has remnants of the foil. All-in-all externally they're in pretty good condition. The woman who  owned them used to work in a tea factory, i'm guessing a Bushell's one? She did say, but I forget.
And speaking of tea, I met the lovely MMMC from Make Mine Mid-Century Saturday. Knee deep in boxes and packing paper and still smiling. You're a better woman than I. 

Doing a pre moving declutter, MMMC was offloading this teaset below which I've been lucky enough to get my greedy little crockery loving hands on.
Thanks again, they're so cute. I do like birds. My coffee cups have birds on them too.

Our front garden is being strategically dug up by the new addition to the family. He digs up just Bromeliads. They've all been dug out as if i'd used a shovel myself. Weird. Is this normal? Just bromeliads. Nothing else.